There’s an old business saying that drop shippers would do well to follow: “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” People often worry that when they start an e-commerce business, they’ll never be able to compete with big companies like Walmart. And that is very true, which is why you should instead find ways to work with them. This is where dropshipping from Walmart comes in.
Walmart’s platform supports different kinds of dropshipping, which is great news for website owners of all shapes and sizes. In terms of sales and size, Walmart is right behind Amazon. In 2023, 6.7% of all retail e-commerce sales will be made through Walmart. That’s pretty impressive, especially since the Walmart marketplace isn’t nearly as busy or competitive as Amazon. Amazon has about 1.6 million sellers, while Walmart Marketplace has about 123,000.
Here’s the complete guide to dropshipping with Walmart and why you should include it in your e-commerce plan.
What does Dropshipping at Walmart mean?
Through Walmart’s marketplace, third-party sellers can reach Walmart’s huge customer base. You can list items for sale in the marketplace just like you would in your own store. The benefit for you, the seller, is that you already have a large number of people interested in your product. Walmart also wins because they can offer their customers even more products without having to pay for more inventory and staff.
The best part is that you can grow your online dropshipping business in more ways. Many online store owners are focused on getting people to visit their own websites or making it big on Amazon. Walmart’s marketplace, on the other hand, isn’t getting much attention. We suggest that you use every chance you can to get your products in front of as many people as possible. Walmart dropshipping should be a part of your business plan if it isn’t already.
There are many ways to dropship from Walmart:
- Dropshipping Walmart products to other sites, like eBay or Amazon, is illegal.
- Walmart’s Drop Ship Vendor Program. Dropshipping to customers the old-fashioned way.
We’re going to talk more about each of these.
How Walmart Dropshipping Works
But the prices at Walmart are so good that many drop shippers can’t say no. So, if you want to sell your items and reach more people, you don’t have to use the Walmart marketplace. Let’s look at three of the most common ways:
From Walmart to eBay dropshipping
Dropshipping from Walmart to eBay is different from traditional dropshipping because it requires you, the seller, to do more work. Instead of having items come straight from a supplier to a customer, you send items to your buyers and act as the supplier.
How it works is as follows:
- Put things you want to sell on your eBay store.
- You buy the item from Walmart and have it shipped to you once someone buys it.
- Then you send the item to the buyer.
This method takes a little bit more time than regular drop shipping because it has an extra step. Because eBay won’t let sellers ship directly from Walmart, this extra step is needed. It’s not as easy to use, but drop shippers choose this method because it lets them make a good profit.
Dropshipping: sending goods from Walmart to Amazon
You can sell drop-shipped items on Amazon just like you can from Walmart to eBay. But Walmart will cancel orders if it thinks you are sending items you bought at Walmart to Amazon customers as a dropshipper. So, there’s also something extra going on here.
This is how the process works:
- Find things that Walmart sells and add them to your site.
- When a customer places an order, you will order the items from Walmart and have them shipped to you.
- Retail arbitrage is another option. This is when you buy discounted or clearance items from a store and sell them for more than you bought them for.
- Ship the items to your customer from you.
The biggest problem with this method is that you have to keep track of it more. Walmart is like any other store in that it is always adding new products and can run out of stock. You need to make sure that the listings for the things you want to buy on Amazon or eBay are active if you want to buy them.
Walmart Dropshipping to Shopify
You can use a Shopify store as part of your Walmart dropshipping strategy if you have one. There are many apps on Shopify that make it easy to add products to your store. Spend less time filling out each product listing so you can start selling right away.
Also, when Walmart Marketplace and Shopify are used together, they work as a two-way street. You can sell Walmart products on your Shopify website, and you can also use Walmart’s marketplace to dropship. It can be hard to get Walmart to let you sell on their site. But once you’re in, you can post all the products you sell through other dropshipping channels.
Dropshipping from Walmart: Pros and Cons
Walmart drop shipping is a great way to grow your online business and build your reputation.
For starters, “Next Day Delivery” is free on thousands of items at Walmart. After a customer places an order, you can have the items quickly in your hands and ready to ship out within 24 hours.
Walmart also sells a lot of different things. Sources say that the company’s 900+ stores have around 46,1 million products.
Walmart has a lot to offer dropshippers in particular:
- You don’t have to pay anything up front to sell on Walmart Marketplace. You don’t have to pay any ongoing fees or set up a store like you do on other platforms. A referral fee is only paid when a sale is made. There are many things you can sell on Walmart. Just like Amazon, Walmart has a few rules that you can find out more about here. But there aren’t many rules when you think about the 35 different categories that are up for grabs.
- Get more attention by having less competition. Thousands of sellers want to win Amazon’s Buy Box, but it’s almost impossible to do so. This is not the case with Walmart, where there are far fewer sellers and, therefore, more chances to get seen. There is a reason why competition is limited. Walmart only works with the best sellers, so if you get approved to sell here, you’re in the top tier. Even though the application process isn’t hard, many sellers don’t want to go through it. This is good news for sellers with a good reputation, because they can get instant credibility by just getting approval.
- Walmart will match the price of an item. If the price of something you buy from Walmart goes down during the time you have to return it, you can get a refund for the difference. This makes you even more money from those orders!
But Walmart dropshippers don’t have it all good all the time. There are some things you should think about before going all in.
First of all, you’re making things for Walmart’s customers. Most of the time, these are people who look for deals. They want sellers to offer prices that are similar to Walmart’s, so you’ll need to set prices that make your products look good. This is especially true if you sell the same things as Walmart, since customers can just order from Walmart if they want to save money.
Some other problems to think about are:
- How long it takes to fill out an application. We’ve already said that not everyone would like it. To finish your application, you will need a tax ID and a business address, among other things. Walmart wants to make sure that customers only connect with good sellers. This is good news for you, though, because it means you will probably have less competition.
- Rules about prices. Walmart has high standards for how prices should be set. In many cases, they will take down listings if the prices aren’t fair or don’t make the business competitive. For instance, if a customer could save a lot of money by buying an item on another website, they might take your listing down.
Make sure you look at all of your drop shipping options when you are thinking about them. Dropshipping on Walmart can help you reach a bigger audience and make more sales, but only if you can keep the highest standards of quality.
Drop shipping from dropshipcorporation to Walmart is a bonus tip
If you want to stick to the traditional drop shipping model, the best thing you can do is use a drop shipping partner like dropshipcorporation. You can bring millions of dropshipping products into the Walmart marketplace through dropshipcorporation. Find items that are popular quickly and add them with just a few clicks. Customers at Walmart will be more likely to buy from you if you offer fast shipping and prices they like.
